Terms Used In Ohio Code > Chapter 1509 - Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management - Oil and Gas

• Advice and consent: Under the Constitution, presidential nominations for executive and judicial posts take effect only when confirmed by the Senate, and international treaties become effective only when the Senate approves them by a two-thirds vote.
• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Annular overpressurization: means the accumulation of fluids within an annulus with sufficient pressure to allow migration of annular fluids into underground sources of drinking water. See Ohio Code 1509.01
• Another: when used to designate the owner of property which is the subject of an offense, includes not only natural persons but also every other owner of property. See Ohio Code 1.02
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Bond: includes an undertaking. See Ohio Code 1.02
• Brine: means all saline geological formation water resulting from, obtained from, or produced in connection with exploration, drilling, well stimulation, production of oil or gas, or plugging of a well. See Ohio Code 1509.01
• Coal bearing township: means a township designated as such by the chief of the division of mineral resources management under section 1561. See Ohio Code 1509.01
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Condensate: means liquid hydrocarbons separated at or near the well pad or along the gas production or gathering system prior to gas processing. See Ohio Code 1509.01
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Correlative rights: means the reasonable opportunity to every person entitled thereto to recover and receive the oil and gas in and under the person's tract or tracts, or the equivalent thereof, without having to drill unnecessary wells or incur other unnecessary expense. See Ohio Code 1509.01
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Drilling unit: means the minimum acreage on which one well may be drilled, but does not apply to a well for injecting gas into or removing gas from a gas storage reservoir and does not apply to a stratigraphic well. See Ohio Code 1509.01
• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Exempt domestic well: means a well that meets all of the following criteria:

  (1) Is owned by the owner of the surface estate of the tract on which the well is located;

  (2) Is used primarily to provide gas for the owner's domestic use;

  (3) Is located more than two hundred feet horizontal distance from any inhabited private dwelling house other than an inhabited private dwelling house located on the tract on which the well is located;

  (4) Is located more than two hundred feet horizontal distance from any public building that may be used as a place of resort, assembly, education, entertainment, lodging, trade, manufacture, repair, storage, traffic, or occupancy by the public. See Ohio Code 1509.01

• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Field: means the general area underlaid by one or more pools. See Ohio Code 1509.01
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Gas: means all natural gas and all other fluid hydrocarbons that are not oil, including condensate. See Ohio Code 1509.01
• Gas storage reservoir: means a continuous area of a subterranean porous sand or rock stratum or strata into which gas is or may be injected for the purpose of storing it therein and removing it therefrom and includes a gas storage reservoir as defined in section 1571. See Ohio Code 1509.01
• Horizontal well: means a well that is drilled for the production of oil or gas in which the wellbore reaches a horizontal or near horizontal position in the Point Pleasant, Utica, or Marcellus formation and the well is stimulated. See Ohio Code 1509.01
• in writing: includes any representation of words, letters, symbols, or figures; this provision does not affect any law relating to signatures. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Material and substantial violation: means any of the following:

  (1) Failure to obtain a permit to drill, reopen, convert, plugback, or plug a well under this chapter;

  (2) Failure to obtain, maintain, update, or submit proof of insurance coverage that is required under this chapter;

  (3) Failure to obtain, maintain, update, or submit proof of a surety bond that is required under this chapter;

  (4) Failure to restore a disturbed land surface as required by section 1509. See Ohio Code 1509.01

• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Oil: means crude petroleum oil and all other hydrocarbons, regardless of gravity, that are produced in liquid form by ordinary production methods, but does not include hydrocarbons that were originally in a gaseous phase in the reservoir. See Ohio Code 1509.01
• Oral argument: An opportunity for lawyers to summarize their position before the court and also to answer the judges' questions.
• Orphaned well: means a well that has not been properly plugged or its land surface restored in accordance with this chapter and the rules adopted under it to which either of the following apply:

  (1) The owner of the well is unknown, deceased, or cannot be located and the well is abandoned. See Ohio Code 1509.01

• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Person: includes any political subdivision, department, agency, or instrumentality of this state; the United States and any department, agency, or instrumentality thereof; any legal entity defined as a person under section 1. See Ohio Code 1509.01
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Pool: means an underground reservoir containing a common accumulation of oil or gas, or both, but does not include a gas storage reservoir. See Ohio Code 1509.01
• Population: means that shown by the most recent regular federal census. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Prepared clay: means a clay that is plastic and is thoroughly saturated with fresh water to a weight and consistency great enough to settle through saltwater in the well in which it is to be used, except as otherwise approved by the chief of the division of oil and gas resources management. See Ohio Code 1509.01
• Production operation: means all operations and activities and all related equipment, facilities, and other structures that may be used in or associated with the exploration and production of oil, gas, or other mineral resources that are regulated under this chapter, including operations and activities associated with site preparation, site construction, access road construction, well drilling, well completion, well stimulation, well site activities, reclamation, and plugging. See Ohio Code 1509.01
• Property: means real and personal property. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Reporter: Makes a record of court proceedings and prepares a transcript, and also publishes the court's opinions or decisions (in the courts of appeals).
• Royalty interest: means the fee holder's share in the production from a well, except a stratigraphic well. See Ohio Code 1509.01
• Rule: includes regulation. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Safe Drinking Water Act: means the "Safe Drinking Water Act" 88 Stat. See Ohio Code 1509.01
• state: means the state of Ohio. See Ohio Code 1.59
• stimulation of a well: means the process of enhancing well productivity, including hydraulic fracturing operations. See Ohio Code 1509.01
• Stratigraphic well: means a borehole that is drilled within the state on a tract solely to conduct research or testing of the subsurface geology, including porosity and permeability. See Ohio Code 1509.01
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Temporary restraining order: Prohibits a person from an action that is likely to cause irreparable harm. This differs from an injunction in that it may be granted immediately, without notice to the opposing party, and without a hearing. It is intended to last only until a hearing can be held.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Tract: means a single, individual parcel of land or a portion of a single, individual parcel of land. See Ohio Code 1509.01
• Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Undertaking: includes a bond. See Ohio Code 1.02
• United States: includes all the states. See Ohio Code 1.59
• Urbanized area: means an area where a well or production facilities of a well are located within a municipal corporation or within a township that has an unincorporated population of more than five thousand in the most recent federal decennial census prior to the issuance of the permit for the well or production facilities. See Ohio Code 1509.01
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Waste: includes all of the following:

  (1) Physical waste, as that term generally is understood in the oil and gas industry;

  (2) Inefficient, excessive, or improper use, or the unnecessary dissipation, of reservoir energy;

  (3) Inefficient storing of oil or gas;

  (4) Locating, drilling, equipping, operating, or producing an oil or gas well in a manner that reduces or tends to reduce the quantity of oil or gas ultimately recoverable under prudent and proper operations from the pool into which it is drilled or that causes or tends to cause unnecessary or excessive surface loss or destruction of oil or gas;

  (5) Other underground or surface waste in the production or storage of oil, gas, or condensate, however caused. See Ohio Code 1509.01

• Waters of the state: means all streams, lakes, ponds, marshes, watercourses, waterways, springs, irrigation systems, drainage systems, and other bodies of water, surface or underground, natural or artificial, that are situated wholly or partially within this state or within its jurisdiction, except those private waters that do not combine or effect a junction with natural surface or underground waters. See Ohio Code 1509.01
• Well: includes a stratigraphic well. See Ohio Code 1509.01
• Well pad: means the area that is cleared or prepared for the drilling of one or more horizontal wells. See Ohio Code 1509.01
• Whoever: includes all persons, natural and artificial; partners; principals, agents, and employees; and all officials, public or private. See Ohio Code 1.02